Nicolas Cage's movie life

The 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' actor was fascinated by movies and TV from a very young age and spent a lot of time trying to work out how to get on television, but didn't find a focus for his ambition until he was a teenager.

He said: "I would watch the TV intently and try to figure out how to get inside it from the living room carpet.

"Going to elementary school, I envisaged crane shots of myself which would widen out to show me as

this tiny little boy walking down the street.

"But it wasn't until I was 15 that I went to the New Beverly Cinema, a little arthouse cinema in Los Angeles, and I discovered James Dean in 'East of Eden'. The scene where he's trying to give Raymond Massey the money from the beans he sold on his father's birthday blew my mind."

The 46-year-old star also revealed he was attracted to his latest movie - which is based on the Disney adventure 'Fantasia' - because he wanted to make a film about magic.

He explained: "You can't really survive in the arts if you don't keep the magical child's mind alive.

"Magic is really very simple. It's about imagination, plus willpower, focused in such a way to create conscious effects in the material world. Every book is a work of magic, every speech that moves people is a work of magic, every movie is a work of magic."